ARTIST / Artist
Ergin Çavuşoğlu
Born in Bulgaria, Çavuşoğlu studied at the National School of Fine Art, Sofia, he had his BA in Marmara University, İstanbul and his MA in Goldsmiths College, London and his Ph.D. in Portsmouth. Çavuşoğlu works in installation, painting, photography, sculpture, and video, but exceeds the boundaries of each to question the conceptual underpinnings of image making itself.
Central to Çavuşoğlu’s artworks are concepts that frequently explore ideas of place, space, liminality, mobility and the conditions of cultural production, which he has been examining in classical, modern and contemporary appearances through video and sound installations, anamorphic drawings and sculptures. Çavuşoğlu’s works frequently engage with the in-between spaces of urban environments. The concepts of time and liminality are central to his practice on a multitude of levels.
Çavuşoğlu alludes to these themes in a reflective way positioning them within geo-political, philosophical, historical and literary contexts. The spatiality and the immersive qualities of his installations further contribute to the manifestation of these concepts in the ways they are experienced by the viewer. Furthermore, the references in his narrative film and video works unfold a series of moral parables that have a notional relevance to contemporary art and the production of culture.
Solomon R. Guggenheim Collection, New York; Sammlung Goetz, Munich; Leeds City Art Gallery Collection; Vehbi Koç Foundation Collection; İstanbul Modern Museum; Borusan Contemporary Collection are among the public collections in which his works are held.
Ergin Çavuşoğlu co-represented Turkey at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003. He was shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures Prize in 2004 and for Artes Mundi 4 in 2010. He lives and works in London, UK and he is a Professor of Contemporary Art at Middlesex University, London.
